DENVER-
The University of Colorado professor who likened some Sept. 11 victims to a Nazi said Monday the school’s president has recommended he be fired over allegations of research misconduct.
Ward Churchill, a tenured professor of ethnic studies, said he wasn’t surprised by the recommendation by CU President Hank Brown, first reported in Monday’s editions of the Camera newspaper in Boulder. The Denver Post reported that Brown’s recommedations came in a 10-page letter sent to the chair of the Privilege and Tenure Hearing panel.
In a statement, university spokeswoman Michele McKinney said the school wasn’t making the letter public. Earlier, she had confirmed reports but declined further comment. “Because it’s a personnel matter it’s inappropriate to comment at this time,” she said.
The university’s governing Board of Regents would have the final say on whether Churchill is fired or disciplined but it could be several weeks before the case could end up in their hands. Brown made the recommendation to fire Churchill to a panel that concluded that he be suspended and that panel has 15 days to respond to Brown.
Brown then can review their comments and decide whether to change his mind or move ahead with asking the regents to dismiss Churchill. Churchill would have 20 days to request a closed-door hearing with the regents.
Churchill, who has denied the allegations, said he would file suit in state or federal court if the regents dismiss him.
Churchill touched off a firestorm with an essay likening some victims in the World Trade Center to Adolf Eichmann, who helped carry out the Holocaust.
University officials concluded he could not be fired for his comments because they were protected by the First Amendment, but they launched an investigation into allegations that he fabricated or falsified his research and plagiarized the work of others.
The interim chancellor of the university’s Boulder campus and another faculty committee have also recommended Churchill be fired. At Churchill’s request, the Privilege and Tenure Committee also reviewed the case and recommended a one-year suspension without pay and a demotion.
Churchill told The Associated Press Monday the university process was biased against him and that he believes he will get a fairer hearing in the courts.
“I’ve got more faith in almost anything (than in the university process),” he said. “A random group of homeless people under a bridge would be far more intellectually sound and principled than anything I’ve encountered at the university so far.”
Churchill said the faculty committee that conducted the primary investigation of his work was loaded against him, and that the university ignored his suggestions for specific scholars with a background in ethnic studies to be members of the panel.
Churchill said he and others plan to file academic charges with the university alleging that the faculty committee committed research misconduct. He said he also plans to publish as many as three books defending his research.
